Pope Saint Pius X:
Model of Papal
Authority
by John Vennari
Part II
Pope Saint Pius X clearly recognized that his first duty as Pope was to protect his flock from false teaching, and to preserve the integrity of the Catholic Faith. It is a theme to which he returned constantly throughout his Pontificate.1
Last month, we focused on Pope Saint Pius X’s successful efforts to combat Modernism, the synthesis of all heresies. To fulfill his sacred duty of protecting his flock against poisonous doctrine, he issued three documents against Modernism: Lamen- tabile sane exitu (The Syllabus of Errors, 1907), Pascendi dominici gregis (Encyclical against Modernism, 1907) and Sacrorum antistitum (The Oath Against Modernism, 1910).
In the 1960 article, “The Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background to the Oath Against Modernism,” the eminent theologian Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, praised the Oath Against Modernism as “the most important and the most influential document issued by the Holy See during the course of the 20th Century”. He called it a “magnificent statement of Catholic truth, in the face of the errors which were being disseminated within the Church by the cleverest enemies the Mystical Body of Christ has encountered in the course of its history”.
This Oath was a profession of Catholic belief intended primarily for those engaged in the spiritual and intellectual formation of candidates for Holy Orders. Msgr. Fenton summarized:
Msgr. Fenton concluded,
Pope Saint Pius X effectively halted the spread of Modernism in his day. It is reported, however, that when he was congratulated for eradicating this grave error, Pius X immediately responded that despite all his efforts, he had not succeeded in killing this beast, but had only driven it underground. He warned that if Church leaders were not vigilant, it would return in the future more virulent than ever.3 His watchword against this “enemy inside the gates” who never quits was vigilance, vigilance, ever more vigilance.
This vigilance was continued by his predecessors, but started to weaken, especially after the Second World War, and was discarded with the new papal attitude of Pope John XXIII. This Pope took a “new approach” toward error, and even elevated Modernist theologians to prominence, despite that these Modernist theologians had not changed their heretical views. The Oath Against Modernism was abolished by Pope Paul VI in July, 1967. Modernist theologians receive Papal favor to this day.
This concluding installment will treat briefly of the papal condemnation of Modernism at the beginning of the 20th Century, to the papal encouragement of Modernism at the beginning of the 21st.
Anti-Modernism Canonized
It is a popular sentiment among progressivists, and even some post-Conciliar “conservatives,” that Pope Pius X “went beyond the bounds imposed by prudence and charity” in his fight against Modernism. Msgr. Fenton addressed this point in 1960 when he wrote his article on the Anti-Modernist Oath. We see that two years before the opening of Vatican II, there was no shortage of Catholic clergymen sympathetic to Modernism who deplored Pope Saint Pius X’s allegedly “harsh” measures.
The issue of the fight against Modernism was addressed in Pius X’s beatification procedure. After the regular investigations for the process of beatification had been completed — in the pre-Vatican II period when the process was properly rigorous — the Congregation of Rites commissioned a special investigation be done to study the validity of the claim that Pius X “went too far” in his anti-modernist battle.
Msgr. Fenton relates that this strict investigation, which made use of all the available testimony and abundant documentary material pertinent to the question, brought out clearly that “Saint Pius X in issuing the Sacrorum antistitum (Oath Against Modernism) and in taking the other steps against Modernists and their supporters during the latter days of his pontificate had only been doing what the demands of his high office demanded of him.”4
On this point, Pius X’s immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV, is reported to have said, “Now that I am sitting on this Chair, I see very well how right Pius X was. While I was the Sostituto in the Secretariat of State, and even while I was Archbishop of Bologna, I did not always share the thoughts of Pius X, but now I have to realize how right he was”.5
It is evident that Pope Benedict XV still regarded Modernism as an influential movement within the Church. In 1914, four years after Pius issued the Oath Against Modernism, Benedict XV said:
Benedict’s successor, Pius XI, was likewise aware of Modernists still alive in the Church. Father Raymond Dulac relates that at the secret consistory of May 23, 1923, Pope Pius XI questioned the thirty Cardinals of the Curia on the timeliness of summoning an ecumenical council. In attendance were illustrious prelates such as Merry del Val, De Lai, Gasparri, Boggiani and Billot.
The Cardinals advised against it. Cardinal Boggiani recalled the Modernist theories from which, he said, a part of the clergy and of the bishops are not exempt. “This mentality can incline certain Fathers to present motions, to introduce methods incompatible with Catholic traditions.”
Cardinal Billot was even more precise. He expressed his fear of seeing the council “maneuvered” by “the worst enemies of the Church, the Modernists, who are already getting ready, as certain indications show, to bring forth the revolution in the Church, a new 1789”.7
Pope Pius XI continued the necessary vigilance against Modernism, forbade Modernist teachers from seminaries and universities, and placed their heretical writings on the Index of Forbidden Books. It was during this time that the Modernist Father Teilhard de Chardin was silenced. Nonetheless, Modernism was still, to quote Saint Pius X, “in the very veins and heart of the Church”.
The New Theology
In the 1940s, a repackaging of Modernism surfaced under the title of the “New Theology”. It was a movement based on a confusion between the natural and supernatural orders.8 It also taught that religion must change for the sake of changing times, a hallmark Modernist tenet.9
The leaders of this movement were Fathers Henri de Lubac (who was a staunch defender of the pantheist, Teilhard de Chardin), Father Dominique Chenu, Father Karl Rahner, Father Yves Congar, and others. Pope Pius XII summarized the error of the New Theology when he warned in 1946:
The great Dominican theologian Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange wrote a landmark work on this subject entitled “Where is the New Theology Leading Us?”11 He warned of theologians such as Father Henri Boulliard who claimed, “a theology which is not current (does not keep changing) is a false theology”. Father Garrigou-La- grange’s main point is summarized in his damning statement that the New Theology leads us straight back to Modernism.
We remember that Pope Saint Pius X warned in Pascendi , “there is no surer sign that a man is tending to Modernism than when he begins to show his dislike for the scholastic method”.12 In Sacrorum antistitum, Pius commanded, “In the future the doctorate in theology or Canon Law must never be conferred on anyone who has not first of all made the regular course in scholastic philosophy. If such a doctorate is conferred, it is to be held as null and void.” Pius insisted that Scholasticism (Thomism) is the remedy to Modernism.
Yet disdain of Scholasticism is a defining element of the Modernist New Theology. This new system wanted to abandon the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas to favor slipshod modern philosophies such as Existentialism. This, they claim, will give them the ability to speak to “modern man” in his own language, because “modern man” finds Thomism complicated and irrelevant.
It’s not surprising that the man on the street had no love of Thomism, probably because he was never taught it. The great tragedy, however, is that priests, theologians and seminarians with “itching ears” began to disdain Thomism and became awash in modern philosophies; philosophies which, according to Father David Greenstock, were born of skepticism, agnosticism and atheism.
Father Greenstock explained in his 1950 article “Thomism and the New Theology” that the New Theology which seeks to rephrase theology in order to speak to “modern man,” would assuredly gut Catholicism of doctrine and of its perennial philosophy. Greenstock said that the purveyors of the New Theology (Rahner, Congar, Chenu, de Lubac)13 falsely believe that Thomism is a “sterile movement destined to have little or no effect on the modern world”.14 Yet in truth, there is nothing more useful to the modern world than Thomism, as Saint Pius X recognized. Thomism is, as G.K. Chesterton said, the philosophy of common sense.15 Modernists despise it because Saint Thomas’ precise terminology allows them no wiggle room.
The growing disdain of Thomism, and the fascination of modern philosophies among theologians and seminarians, was lamented by Father Garrigou-Lagrange when he noted:
The situation continued to worsen. In the 1950s, a German seminarian named Joseph Ratzinger was one of many seminarians open- ly bored with Thomism calling it “closed in on itself” and “too-ready-made”.17 Ratzinger was thoroughly entrenched in the New Theology. He became a co- worker with Karl Rahner and a devotee of the godfather of the New Theology, Father Henri de Lubac. By 1966, Father Ratzinger would rejoice that Vatican II did away with the notion that non-Catholics need to convert to the Catholic Church for salvation, thus defying the thrice defined dogma of “No Salvation Outside the Catholic Church”.18 By 1981, Joseph Ratzinger, would be Cardinal Prefect of the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith where, to this day, he persists in his primary allegiance to the New Theology.19
The Plot Thickens
In the 1940s and 50s, Pope Pius XII ’s Holy Office under Cardinal Ottaviani kept many of these Modernist theologians in check. But there was still another element to contend with, and that was the Communist infiltration of the seminaries that began in the 1930s.
Bella Dodd, a former Communist, testified after her conversion back to Catholicism, that in the 1930s, orders came from Moscow to infiltrate all religious bodies, and the Catholic Church in particular. Bella Dodd said that she herself had enlisted over 1000 radicals to enter Catholic seminaries, and she was only one Communist.
The plan, according to Bella Dodd, was for these radicals to become bishops, because “bishops beget bishops”. The radical prelates would see to it that only other radicals (not necessarily Communists, but also Modernists and progressivists) would become bishops as well. In the 1950s, Bella Dodd said that the Communists had their men in the highest places in the Church and that they were “working to bring about change” so that the Catholic Church would no longer be effective against Communism. In the early 1950s she predicted, “In ten to twelve years, you will not recognize the Catholic Church”.20
Her warnings proved to be true.
There is no doubt that progressivist clergymen were elevated to the episcopacy at this time. Modernists and progressivists were also on the rise within the clergy, seminaries and universities. Ample evidence of this appears in the writings of the 1950s,21 particularly in the letter of Brazilian Bishop Gerald de Proenca Sigaud in 1959. Bishop Sigaud wrote to Vatican Cardinal Tardini:
Bishop Sigaud lamented that Thomism is being displaced by the dangerous modern philosophies of Jacques Maritain.23 He further complained:
Ironically, four years after Bishop Sigaud wrote these words, a Maritainist Cardinal named Giovanni- Battísta Montini would become Pope and choose the name, Paul VI.24
Nonetheless, Bishop Sigaud in this 1959 letter urged the upcoming Council to focus on the need for counter-revolutionary teaching and counter-revolutionary action in the Church worldwide. He rightly castigated the alleged need for the Church to be updated, saying, “If ‘this day’s’ world is more pagan than godly, Catholics for this reason can not be ‘up to date’.”
Bishop Sigaud’s warning went unheeded.
This is because in 1958, a new kind of Pope was elected who took the name John XXIII. This Pope derided critics such as Bishop Sigaud as a “prophet of doom always forecasting disaster”.25 Incidentally, another “prophet of doom” that John discarded was Our Lady of Fatima, when he refused to release in 1960 the Third Secret that foretold the coming apostasy in the Church.26
Pius X’s Anti-Modernism Undermined
Before he became John XXIII, Cardinal Roncalli had a file compiled on him in the Vatican in which he was branded “Suspected of Modernism”.27 Everyone knew that this Pope brought a new spirit to the Papacy that was different from his predecessors.
Part of this “new spirit,” as related last month, was John XXIII’s new approach toward error. In his 1962 opening speech at the Council, Pope John XXIII stated, “the Church is not to set aside or weaken its opposition to error, but “she prefers today to make use of the medicine of mercy, rather than of the arms of severity”. She resists error, “by showing the validity of her teaching, rather than by issuing condemnations”.28
Yet the greatest tragedy of John XXIII’s pontificate was when he decided to lift the ban on Modernist theologians and invite them to the Second Vatican Council as expert advisors.
In short, the Conciliar and post-Conciliar crisis of Faith was sealed when John XXIII permitted heterodox theologians to become theological experts at Vatican II, and when he allowed them to gain control of the Council. The crisis of Faith was further assured when Pope Paul VI allowed these progressivist theologians to become the interpreters of the ambiguous Council documents to the world.29
In his book Vatican II Revisited, Bishop Aloysius J. Wycislo (a rhapsodic advocate of the Vatican II revolution) declares with enthusiasm that “theologians and biblical scholars who had been ‘under a cloud’ for years surfaced as periti (theological experts advising the bishops at the Council), and their post-Vatican II books and commentaries became popular reading”.30
He noted, “During the early preparation of the Council, those theologians (mainly French, with some Germans) whose activities had been restricted by Pope Pius XII, were still under a cloud. Pope John quietly lifted the ban affecting some of the most influential ones. Yet a number remained suspect to the officials of the Holy Office.”31
The men whom Bishop Wycislo praises were neo- Modernists and purveyors of the New Theology: Karl Rahner, John Courtney Murray, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Edward Schillebeeckx, Gregory Baum, and others. These men were rightly considered suspect before the Council, but became “expert theological advisors” at Vatican II, and are now “leading lights” in post-Vatican II theology.
Please recall that Pope Saint Pius X commanded that no one who supported Modernist errors was to be admitted to or permitted to remain in the professorial corps or the administration of an ecclesiastical seminary or a Catholic university. And no young man who was infected by Modernist errors was to be allowed to become or to remain a candidate for Holy Orders.
Yet the very men infected with Modernist errors, who by Pius X’s directives, should neither be ordained nor allowed to teach in Catholic institutions, were now encouraged to become ex- pert advisors of the Second Vatican Council and to decide the future course of the entire Church. This is the true legacy of “Blessed” John XXIII.
Vatican II: The Triumph of the New Theology
It is well known and superbly documented32 that a clique of liberal theologians (periti) and bishops hijacked Vatican II with an agenda to remake the Church into their own image through the implementation of a “new theology”. The battle line at the Council was between two major groups: the International Group of Fathers who fought for Tradition, and the Rhine Group of progressivists whom John XXIII allowed to gain the upper hand at the Council within days of its opening.
In result, the neo-Modernist new system, condemned under Pope Pius XII, won the day at the Council. Father Henrici, a disciple of the “New Theology” boasted that the New Theology of Lyon (cradle of de Lubac’s theology) “has become the official theology of Vatican II”.33 These progressivists maintained control of the Church ever since.
And as if to crown their achievements, the Oath Against Modernism was quietly suppressed by Paul VI in 1967, shortly after the close of the Council. At a time when progressivists were on the rise in the Church, after 30 years of infiltration in the Church by Communists and other enemies, when the Oath Against Modernism and anti-Modernist measures were needed the most, Pope Paul VI scrapped the Oath Against Modernism and abandoned Pius X’s anti- Modernist directives.
It is now to the point where priests like Father Donald Cozzens, author of the pro-homosexual The Changing Face of the Catholic Priesthood, openly denigrates the Oath Against Modernism, as happened in a recent National Public Radio interview, wherein the Oath Against Modernism was briefly discussed. Father Cozzens, speaking of himself and his confreres, said on the air:
These priests who took an oath without even believing its contents are betrayers of the Catholic Faith, and perjurers before God.35 Yet no disciplinary action is taken against them by their bishops, or from the Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy under Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos.
Pope Saint Pius X had predicted correctly. Lack of vigilance in authority had provoked Modernism to return with a vengeance. Sadly, this is also due to the fact that the post-Conciliar Popes themselves were won over to neo-Modernist ideas. It is no wonder that Cardinal Siri lamented of Vatican II, “If the Church were not Divine, this Council would have buried her.”36
A Man of the Left
During the Council, there was a young bishop who sided with the progressivist periti, and worked closely with the purveyors of the New Theology37 such as Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar and Karl Rahner. (Rahner is well-known for his heretical theory of the “anonymous Christian”: that all peoples whether they know it or not are Christian and are somehow ‘part’ of the Church.)
This young bishop became all afire with the most progressivist aspects of the Council. He helped compose two of the most radical council documents; Gaudium et spes and Dignitatis Humanae.
Gaudium et spes, which was heavily influenced by the thought of the pantheist Teilhard de Chardin,38 contains the Church’s new attitude toward the world. It is also permeated with the novel theories of Jacques Maritain, and supplanted traditional Papal teaching on the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ with the “Church in Dialogue with the World”.39 Dignitatis Humanae conflicts with traditional Catholic doctrine, claiming for the first time that members of false religions have a “right” to practice their false religion in public.40
This young bishop, a devout follower of Henri de Lubac and the New Theology, was passionate for the novel concepts of interreligious dialogue, pan-religious ecumenism, religious liberty and “dialogue with the world”. He regarded these themes not as the contradictions of traditional Catholic teaching that they were, but rather as an “enrichment of faith”. In 1972, he wrote the book Sources of Renewal, in which he outlined the major points of the Council, and how it must be implemented in his diocese.41 He saw Vatican II as a New Pentecost, the greatest grace of his life, a guiding light for his religious faith, a focal point for all his teachings. He was a blend of the old and the new, displaying Marian and Eucharistic devotion simultaneously with a fervent commitment to the most radical aspects of the Council. The name of this Vatican II enthusiast was Karol Wojtyla, the Cardinal Archbishop of Crakow. On October 16, 1978, this Polish prelate was elected as the 264th Successor of Saint Peter, and took the name John Paul II.
The New Program
Last month, we reported that Saint Pius X saw his first duty as Pope to preserve the integrity of the Faith, and to protect the flock from poisonous teaching. He said in his first Encyclical, “Rest assured, Venerable Brethren, that we on our side will use the greatest diligence to prevent the members of the clergy from being drawn to the snares of a new and fallacious science, which savoreth not of Christ, but with masked and cunning argument, strives to open the doors to the errors of rationalism and semi-rationalism.”42
In the first lines of the anti-Modernist Encyclical, Pascendi, Pius likewise stated, “one of the primary obligations assigned by Christ to the office divinely committed to Us of feeding the Lord’s flock is that of guarding with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the faith delivered to the saints, rejecting the profane novelties of words and the gainsay of knowledge falsely so called”. He explains that in the face of this Modernist heresy, “We may no longer keep silence, lest We should seem to fail in Our most sacred duty ...43
Pius further said, “Far, far from the clergy be a love of novelty”.44
But by 1978, there was a change. Pope John Paul II, in his first major address as Pope, does not speak of his duty to preserve the purity of doctrine against the many errors of the day. Rather, he sees his primary task to further the new teachings of Vatican II. On October 17, 1978, the newly elected John Paul II said:
There is much we could discuss about how John Paul has made explicit the so-called “implicit” teaching of the Council; particularly his new teaching that the Old Covenant of Judaism was not superseded by the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. This teaching is not only contrary to Scripture (Hebrew 8:13) and the defined, infallible teaching of the Council of Florence,46 but it is also praised by Rabbis such as Leon Kleneki of the Anti-Defamation League of the B’Nai Brith. Kleneki rejoices that John Paul II has “said and done things that no other Pope has done”.47
But the most visual illustration of John Paul making explicit what was “implicit” in the Council is the pan- religious prayer meeting at Assisi in 1986, which launched a new pan-religious initiative in the Church. This, according to John Paul, is a living expression of the true teaching of Vatican II.
Assisi
On October 27, 1986, at the invitation of John Paul II, 160 leaders of the world’s religions gathered at Assisi Italy to pray for peace. It was an unprecedented event that ran contrary to 2,000 years of Catholic doctrine and practice.
Of this Assisi prayer meeting, chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, exclaimed with apparent approval, “Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of mankind.”48
The 12 religions represented at the Assisi prayer meeting were African animists, American Indians, Bahais, Buddhists, “Christians,”49 Jains, Jews, Hindus, Moslems, Shintoists, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians.
The Chicago Tribune, commenting on the event, remarked that the day of prayer “ended in a unique dinner when the Pope played host to men whom most of his predecessors regarded as heathens”.50
At the Assisi meeting, the different religions formed 12 groups and dispersed among Romanesque churches, Baroque churches, and Medieval palaces, so that each religion could pray separately.
Much attention was drawn to the fact that “at no time did all the participants pray together, they were brought ‘together to pray’ ”. This, however, is “a distinction that would make a Jesuit blush”;51 since gathering all religions together in full view of the world gives a great boost to the heresy of liberalism that “one religion is as good as another,” which is the prevalent error of modern times. In truth, the Assisi meeting was liberalism enfleshed.
Sacred Scripture and Church teaching always forbade Catholics to engage in interreligious activity, since it places the one true religion of Jesus Christ on the same base level as false creeds. This is the consistent teaching of the Church throughout the centuries. In 398 AD, the Council of Carthage taught:
Pope Pius XI, faithful to perennial Catholic truth, forbade Catholics from pan- religious activity in his 1928 encyclical Mortalium Animos:
In the same encyclical, he called pan-religious initiatives “fair and alluring words that cloak a most deadly error, subversive to the Catholic Faith”.53
Further, Sacred Scripture forbids Church leaders to engage in any activity that gives even the appearance of scandal. St. Paul upbraided Peter (the first Pope) because St. Peter gave scandal to the Christians at Antioch. “I withstood him (Peter) to his face, because he was to be blamed.”(Gal. 2, 14)54
At the Assisi meeting, however, scandal ruled the hour. Practically every pagan aberration was represented as a respectable religion whose false gods may be invoked for the sake of world peace.
• In a chapel overlooking the rolling hills of Umbria, the head of the Zoroastrian church in Bombay, Dr. Homi Dhalla, sat alone before a burning brazier praying to the fire he said symbolized his god.
• Next door, a group of six turbaned Sikhs sat chanting their prayers in the lotus position to the music of a gramophone.
• An Indian guru named Paramahansa Yogandanda, representing one of the many sects that had joined the ecumenical gathering at Assisi, was distributing his own prayer leaflets in the streets while members of the Hari Krishna sect canvassed for disciples.
• At an old Roman temple close to the town hall, Moslems sat on prayer mats under the auspices of Saudi Arabian Sheik Mohammed Nasir, Secretary of the world Islamic League.
• African animists in their colorful off-the-shoulder togas, invoked the spirits of trees and plants to come to the aid of peace.
• One African animist snake worshiper delivered a staccato prayer to “Almighty God, The Great Thumb” from a platform in Assisi’s Renaissance city hall. At his prayer, the witch doctor cursed “all the wicked persons who frustrate this laudable effort made to achieve peace,” and added, “Let all the evil ancestors and spirits receive their drink and flee to their doom.”55
• Only the Jewish contingent, led by Rome’s Rabbi Taoff, did not enter a Christian church. The Jews prayed around a table outside the church of the young St. Francis.
The Los Angeles Times reported that “It was the more esoteric religions that drew the largest crowds of onlookers, the most sought- after was Chief John Pretty-on-Top” a Medicine Man of the Crow Indians who conducted his superstitious ritual in full Indian regalia, including headdress.
The Indian Chief “offered stentorian intonations against the evil spirits in the Crow language, waving a straw fan like a magic wand. A pieta painting, depicting the dying Jesus with the Madonna looked down on him from behind the altar”.
At one point, “Chief Pretty-on-Top offered to cast out evil spirits of anyone who sought to be thus cleansed. Many came forward, including a young Franciscan monk”.56
But perhaps the greatest outrage occurred when,
Interfaith at Assisi: Vatican II Showcased
Yet, the 1986 Assisi prayer meeting was not a singular aberration for the cause of world peace. According to John Paul, the interfaith gathering was actually the fruition of the new theology of Vatican II.
Far from voicing doctrinal objections to the Assisi event, or explaining it as a tragic misinterpretation of the Council, or expressing sorrow for the scandal it provoked, or apologizing for the Buddhists’ desecration of a Catholic basilica, the Pope stated joyfully:
This is a direct quote from the Pope’s 1986 Christmas address to Cardinals and the Roman Curia entitled “The World Situation Constitutes a Pressing Appeal for the Spirit of Assisi”. Throughout the entire speech — that emphasized the Council documents Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes, Ad Gentes, Unitatis Redintegratio and Nostra Aetate59 — the Pope celebrated the inter-religious prayer meeting at Assisi as a dynamic manifestation of the doctrine of Vatican II; a new direction for the future:
Toward the end of the speech, the Pope urged his Cardinals to continue in the same new path:
The Assisi day of prayer, then, was merely the opportunity for this unprecedented “visible expression of the Second Vatican Council” to leap onto the world stage as a “holy and respectable” event. The Assisi meeting (whose “spirit” must be “kept alive”) was a bold manifestation of the Vatican’s new commitment to ecumenism, inter-religious dialogue, inter-denominational prayer, “respect for non-Christian religions,” and a new brand of unity among religions that even John Paul II admits is “still somewhat novel”.61 Assisi is a shop-window display of Vatican II’s new teaching that the Church must not seek conversions, but a “legitimate pluralism” among all religions for the “betterment” of the human family.
Thus we see that the pan- religious prayer meeting at Assisi is an “explicit” expression of what Pope John Paul II saw to be “implicit” in the Council. And faithful to his 1978 speech, he has made “explicit” these “implicit” tenets. In result, the novel “Spirit of Assisi,” pan-religious meetings have been encouraged and repeated throughout the Catholic world for the past 17 years, by Cardinals and bishops in their respective diocese. This includes, among many others, a pan-religious gathering at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York in 1998 under Cardinal O’Connor for the plight of the homeless. The Vatican continues these initiatives as well, such as the 1999 pan-religious meeting at the Vatican where, among other aberrations, Native American Indians performed their superstitious ritual of “blessing the four winds” in Saint Peter’s Square, and Muslims spread out newspapers in the Colonnade of the Vatican to kneel towards Mecca to pray to the false god of Islam.62
The most prominent, recent pan-religious gathering was the 2002 pan-religious meeting at Assisi organized by Pope John Paul II that included 20 of the world’s religions. An un- named Vatican official rightly complained that the Pope “had promoted pagan worship” at Assisi,63 and Cardinal Biffi of Bologna refused to attend, since these inter-religious meetings cannot be squared with traditional Catholic teaching and practice.64
A Tale of Two Popes
Pope Pius X said “far, far from the clergy be a love of novelty”.
By contrast, Pope John Paul II has said in effect, “welcome, welcome within the clergy the love of Conciliar novelty,” especially innovations such as pan-religious meetings of Assisi.
Pope Pius X enlisted strict measures to keep Modernist priests banished and silenced.
Unlike Pius X, Pope John Paul II does not suppress Modernist clergymen, but allows them to run freely in the Church. He even rewards these neo-Modernists with Cardinal’s hats, as he did with Fathers Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Yves Congar.
The Anti-Modernist Oath, and anti-Modernist measures of Pius X are now a source of derision in post- Conciliar circles. Meanwhile, our Church leaders, following the Modernist utopia of Vatican II, happily prance about in a Church in ruins, all the while praising the Conciliar reforms that have caused the disaster, and prattle endlessly about a non-existent “new springtime” and “civilization of love”.
Thus, Jacinta of Fatima’s plea to “pray, pray a great deal for the Holy Father,” are words that we should take to heart: especially since the Papal theologian Cardinal Luigi Ciappi said, “In the Third Secret we read among other things, that the apostasy in the Church will begin at the top.”65
Let us pray that we may soon be given a Pope who once again takes up his sword against the beast of Modernism, and reinstates Pius’s anti-Modernist directives. Would that Heaven will send us a Pontiff who, like Pius X, recognizes his first duty to protect the Catholic faithful from poisonous teaching, and to preserve the integrity of the traditional Catholic Faith.66
This seems unlikely to happen soon, since today’s College of Cardinals is stacked with men whose first allegiance is to the Conciliar aggiornamento. But perhaps we only get what we deserve. Saint John Eudes said that when God is angry and wants to punish His people for their sins, He sends them bad priests.67
While we wait for the current nightmare to end, let us obey Our Lady of Fatima who promised “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Let us keep the Catholic Faith integral and inviolate, and resist all Modernist innovations, as the anti-Modernist encyclical Pascendi commands.68
Finally, in our resistance, let us take courage from the words of Pope Saint Pius X, the greatest Pope of the 20th Century, who said, “the true friends of the people are neither the revolutionaries, nor the innovators, but the traditionalists”.69
Footnotes:
1) For details, see Part I, “Pope Saint Pius X: Model of Papal Authority,” J. Vennari, Catholic Family News, August, 2003.
2) “The Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background to the Oath Against Modernism,” Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton, The American Ecclesiastical Review, October, 1960, p. 260.
3) Father Vincent Miceli, The Anti- Christ, Cassette Lecture, Keep the Faith, Inc., Ramsey, NJ.
4) “The Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background to the Oath Against Modernism,” Fenton, p. 241-2,
5) Ibid., p. 242.
6) Codicis iuris canonici fontes. III, 842, Ad beatissimi: Quoted from Ibid.
7) Raymond Dulac, Episcopal Collegiality at the Second Council of the Vatican, Paris Cedre, 1979, pp. 9-10.
8) See Si Si No No 10-Part series, “They Think They Have Won”. (Available from CFN for $14.45US postpaid)
9) See “Modernism in a Nutshell: Religion Must Change with the Times,” J. Vennari, Catholic Family News, August, 2003.
10) L’Osservatore Romano, December 19, 1946. Quoted from “Where is the New Theology Leading Us?” Father Garrigou-Lagrange, see next footnote.
11) English translation of “Where is the New Theology Leading Us?” Father Garrigou-Lagrange. Originally published in the Angelicum in 1947. Translated into English by Catholic Family News, and published in August, 1998. (Reprint #309 available for $2.50US postpaid.)
12) Ibid.
13) Father Greenstock mentions these men by name in his superb article, “Thomism and the New Theology,” The Thomist, October, 1950.
14) Greenstock, p. 572.
15) G.K. Chesterton’s outstanding book, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Dumb Ox, cannot be recommended highly enough. Especially Chapter 7, “The Permanent Philosophy”.
16) “Where is the New Theology Leading Us?’, Garrigou-Lagrange.
17) From p. 44 of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s autobiography, Milestones. Quoted from Si Si No No, “Memories of a Destructive Mind,” Part I, published in The Angelus, March, 1999.
18) Father Joseph Ratzinger said, “The Catholic Church has no right to absorb the other Churches ... [A] basic unity — of Churches that remain Churches, yet become one Church — must replace the idea of conversion, even though conversion retains its meaningfulness for those in conscience motivated to seek it.” (Emphasis added) from Theological Highlights of Vatican II, Joseph Ratzinger [Paulist Press, New York, 1966], p. 65-66.
19) Cardinal Ratzinger has said in an interview that he has not changed his progressivist views since the time of Vatican II. See In the Murky Waters of Vatican II, Atila Sinke Guimarães (Metairie: Maeta, 1997), pp. 121-2.
20) Deitrich von Hildebrand explains that during the 1950s, the French Dominicans had become so Communistic in their orientation that they barely escaped dissolution by Pope Pius XII. For more documentation on the Communist Infiltration of the Catholic Church, see “Heaven’s Request for Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus,” Part III, J. Vennari, Catholic Family News, August, 2001.
21) See the writings of Msgr. Joseph Clifford Fenton in the American Ecclesiastical Review in the 1950s. Though he does not always name names, it is clear that he is battling progressivist ideas that had gained prominence among Catholic clergy and theologians in the 1950s, especially in Msgr. Fenton’s battles with Father John Courtney Murray.
22) “What Vatican II Should Have Done,” Bishop Sigaud’s Letter to Cardinal Tardini, Written on August 22, 1959, published in The Angelus, October 1996.
23) H. Caron in the October 15, 1975 issue of Le Courrier de Rome, said “The ‘integral humanism’ of Maritain is a universal fraternity of men of good will belonging to different religions or no religion at all. It is within this fraternity that the Church should exercise a leavening influence without imposing itself and without demanding that it be recognized as the one true Church”. The late Hamish Fraser wrote brilliantly of how Maritain’s new outlook defies the traditional Papal teaching on the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ. See “The Kingship of Jesus Christ Betrayed,” by Hamish Fraser (condensed from Approaches). Reprint #415 available from CFN for $1.75US.
24) Cardinal Montini was so enthused with Maritain that he had the French book Integral Humanism translated into Italian. See Michael Davies, Pope John’s Council, Appendix VI “Salleron on Maritain”.
25) Thomas Cahill, Pope John XXIII, (New York: Viking, 2002), p. xiii.
26) Even Mother Angelica said on her EWTN television program that she believes we did not receive the entire Third Secret. Fatima scholars have always maintained that the essence of the Third Secret concerns the present crisis of Faith in the Catholic Church. See Cardinal Ciappi’s comment at the end of this article. For an exhaustive treatment on Fatima and the “release” of the Third Secret in June, 2000, see The Devil’s Final Battle, edited by Father Paul Kramer. (Available from CFN for $14.95US postpaid)
27) Mark Fellows, Fatima in Twilight, (Niagara Falls: Marmion, 2003), p. 54.
28) Quoted from Iota Unum, Romano Amerio (Kansas City, Sarto House, 1996), p. 80.
29) For more, see Pope John’s Council, by Michael Davies. (Kansas City, Angelus, 1977)
30) Most Reverend Aloysius Wycislo, S.J., Vatican II Revisted, Reflections By One Who Was There, (New York: Alba House, 1987), p. x.
31) Ibid. p. 27
32) See The Rhine Flows Into the Tiber by Fr. Ralph Wiltgen, Tan Books and Publishers; Pope John’s Council, by Michael Davies, Angelus Press, Kansas City, MO; and even Vatican II Revisited, (see footnote 30) which sings praises of the reform.
33) Full quote from Father Henrici reads “Our allegiance is to that tradition in the line of the ‘new theology’ of Lyon [cradle of de Lubac’s theology] which insists on the non-opposition between nature and super-nature, that is, nature and super-nature are really identical things (and consequently) between faith and culture, and which has become the official theology of Vatican II” Fr. Henrici in his interview with 30 Days of December 1991, quoted from “The Think They Have Won,” Part VIII, see footnote 8.
34) “Father Donald Cozzens discusses his life as a priest, his latest book and the recent crises in the church,” WHYY, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, October 24, 2002.
35) Father Richard McBrien of Notre Dame, a “priest in good standing” also denigrates the Oath Against Modernism in his column, “Liberal Pope often follows a conservative: on papal succession … and the pontiff now needed”; National Catholic Reporter, June 17, 1994.
36) Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, from Lucio Brunelli, “Todos os segredos de un quase Papa,” 30 Dias, September, 1993. Quoted from Atila Sinke Guimarães, Animus Delendi I, (Los Angeles, Tradition in Action, 2000) p. 7.
37) Father Ludvik Nemec, a “conservative” Catholic, writes in praise of John Paul II that “Bishop Wojtyla took a progressive stand” at Vatican II, and that he “interacted with progressive theologians” at the Council. Pope John Paul II, A Festive Profile (Catholic Book Publishing, NY, 1979), p. 98.
38) Cardinal Ratzinger said, “the impetus given by Teilhard de Chardin exerted a wide influence” at the Council, particularly the Cardinal alludes, in the Council Document Gaudium et spes”. See Principles of Catholic Theology, Joseph Ratzinger, Ignatius Press, p. 334.
39) Michael Davies explains, “Gaudium et spes is pervaded by the notion that all men are basically men of good will, seeking the truth and anxious to do good. Far from the notion of conflict between the City of God and the City of Man (as set forth, for example, in the writings of St. Augustine and reiterated in Pope Leo XIII’s condemnation of Freemasonry, Humani Genus - JV.) this constitution envisages a future where the two cities work together for the common good of mankind. Pope John’s Council, Michael Davies, (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1977), p. 184-5.
40) The Church always tolerated members of false religions, but never said they had a “right” to practice their false creed, as no one has a moral right to believe a lie. As Cardinal Ottaviani said, “error has no rights”. For a fuller treatment, see The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty by Michael Davies.
41) For a fascinating study of Sources of Renewal and Cardinal Wojtyla’s concept of Vatican II novelties as an “enrichment of Faith,” see Johannes Dormann, Pope John Paul II’s Theological Journey to the Prayer Meeting of Religions at Assisi, Part II, Volume III, pp. 1-38.
42) Quoted from A Symposium on the Life and Work of Pope Pius X; entry by Father James E. Eagn, O.P, S.T.D., “Pius X and the Integrity of Doctrine” (Washington, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 1946) p. 52.
43) Pascendi, Pope Saint Pius X, par. 1. Translation from The Popes Against Modern Errors, (Rockford: Tan Books, 1999) p. 180.
44) Quoted from “The Sacrorum Antistitum and the Background to the Oath Against Modernism,” Fenton, p. 254.
45) Quoted from Peter Hebblethwaite, “Pope John Paul II,” from a collection of essays entitled Modern Catholicism, Vatican II and After, Edited by Adrian Hastings, (London: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 447. Emphasis added.
46) See Council of Florence in Denzinger, #712.
47) See “The Attack on the Oberammergau Passion Play,” John Vennari, Catholic Family News, May- July, 2003. Reprint of entire series, #844, is available from CFN for $2.50US post-paid. See also Gospel “According to Non-Believers,” May- June 2000.
48) Robert Suro, “City of Saint Francis Prepares for His Modern Heirs,” New York Times, Sept. 26, 1986.
49) Catholics, the Pope included, were simply folded in with schismatic and heretical Protestant sects under the umbrella name, “Christian”.
50) Ubi Schmetzer, “Peace Has a Prayer at Assisi,” Chicago Tribune, October 28, 1986.
51) Christopher Ferrara, “The Third Secret of Fatima and the Post Conciliar Debacle” Catholic Family News, Feb. 1998, p. 17.
52) Coun. Carth. iv. 72 and 73. Cited from The Sincere Christian, by Bishop George Hay, Appendix: “On Communicating in Religion with Those who are Separated from the Church of Christ,” (James Duffy & Sons, Dublin - Imprimatur by G.J. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin) p. 555.
53) Mortalium Animos, On Fostering True Religious Unity, Pope Pius XI, 1928 (Available from CFN for $4.25 postpaid) The entire Encyclical should be required reading, as it is never quoted in Conciliar and post-Conciliar documents.
54) This, incidentally, contains a lesson for all Catholics against the error of “papalotry,” since the infallible Sacred Scriptures teaches us from apostolic times that is not impossible for a Pope to be the occasion of great scandal; and in that case, we must imitate St. Paul in his open resistance even to Peter himself if need be. See St. Thomas Aquinas’ and Saint Robert Bellarmine’s comments on the need to resist a Pope if necessary in “Resisting Wayward Prelates, According to the Saints,” John Vennari, (Reprint #259 available from CFN for $1.75 postpaid). See also quotes from Suarez and Bellarmine on p. 21 of this issue.
55) Don A. Schanche, “60 Religious Leaders Join Pontiff; Streets of Assisi Ring with Prayers for Peace,” Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1986.
56) Ubi Schmetzer, “Peace Has a Prayer at Assisi,” Chicago Tribune, October 28, 1986.
57) Robert Suro, “12 Faiths Join Pope to Pray for Peace,” New York Times, October 28, 1986.
58) Pope’s Christmas Address to Roman Curia, L’Osservatore Romano, January 5, 1987, pp.6-7. A detailed commentary on this Christmas address by John Paul II is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say that this Papal address stands in stark contradiction to the teaching and the practice of all the pre-Vatican II Popes for 1,960 years combined.
59) Ibid. This speech demonstrates that the new progressive theology of Vatican II is not simply one or two misinterpreted statements from the more progressive Council documents. In fact, the new progressive theology is integral to all the documents of the Council, and hence, is the true “spirit of Vatican II”.
60) Ibid.
61) Ibid, No. 8. During this speech, the Pope spoke of a new two-dimensional mystery of unity. The first is the unity already attained in Christ through faith and baptism. The second is “the unity which is expressed in the condition of being ‘oriented’ toward the People of God, and hence, is still to be attained perfectly”. The Pope goes on to say that “it is within this second dimension — still somewhat novel — that the Day of Assisi offers us precious elements of our reflection, elements that are illuminated by an attentive reading of [Vatican II’s] Declaration on the non-Christian religions.”
62) This 1999 “Spirit of Assisi” prayer gathering was described in “Pantheon of the Gods at the Vatican,” John Vennari, Catholic Family News, December, 1999.
63) John Allen, “The Word From Rome,” National Catholic Reporter, February 8, 2002.
64) Christopher Ferrara’s Dispatches from Assisi, January 2002, Remnant webpage.
65) I do not suggest that the post-Conciliar Popes have acted for evil motives. Only God knows men’s hearts, and the actions of recent Pontiffs are probably well intentioned. They seem to have bought into the Teilhardian myth that we are now in a “new age” of humanity, so the old rules no longer apply. It is the temptation of the hour from which no man is exempt.
66) The Devil’s Final Battle, Edited by Father Paul Kramer (Buffalo: Missionary Association, 2003), p. 33.
67) Saint John Eudes, The Priest: His Dignity and Obligations, (P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, 1947) pp. 9-10.
68) The entire notion of “Catholic novelty” stands condemned by the perennial Magisterium. Pope Saint Pius X wrote in his Encyclical Against Modernism: “But for Catholics nothing will remove the authority of the second Council of Nicea, where it condemns those ‘who dare, after the impious fashion of heretics, to deride the ecclesiastical traditions, to invent novelties of some kind ... or endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow any one of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church’ ... Wherefore the Roman Pontiffs, Pius IV and Pius IX, ordered the insertion in the profession of faith of the following declaration: ‘I most firmly admit and embrace the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions and other observances and constitutions of the Church’.” And the Second Council of Nicea teaches infallibly, “If anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the Church, let him be anathema.”
69) Pope St. Pius X, Our Apostolic Mandate, August 25, 1910, para. 44.
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